Applicants claim priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 of Austrian Application No. A 751/99 filed Apr. 28, 1999. Applicants also claim priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7120 of PCT/AT00/00066 filed Mar. 22, 2000. The international application under PCT article 21(2) was not published in English.
The invention relates to a store for providing different kinds of articles, with the store consisting of storage places for one type of article each, of quantity detection devices for the articles as are assigned to the storage places and of an evaluator for results of measurements which can be related to the saved data of the respective type of article, which module is connected with the storage places via a transmission link for transmitting the results of measurements of the quantity detection devices.
In order to enable the advantageous monitoring of the quantity on stock of different kinds of articles in a store it is known (DE 31 15 191 A1) to assign quantity detection devices to the storage places for the individual kinds of articles and to supply the measurement results of said quantity detection devices in combination with a location identifier for the storage places via a transmission line to an evaluator, preferably a computer. Under the precondition that each storage place receives merely one predetermined kind of article, the respective kind of article can be assigned specifically via the location identifier to the measurement result of the associated quantity detection device, so that it is possible, on the basis of the total weight of a type of article as determined by way of the quantity detection devices, to continuously determine and monitor the stored quantity on stock of said kind of article as a result of the known individual weight of the article, which thus considerably simplifies the management of such a store. The disadvantage in such stores is, however, that the distribution of the types of articles among the individual storage places must be predetermined without any changes. This is particularly relevant in the case that the store management is to be performed independent from the store user because the store user is forced to accept a certain distribution of the types of articles among the existing storage places.
In order to detect the stock quantities of the articles relating to the individual types of articles it is further known (DE 196 51 464 A1) to store the articles according to types in containers which are provided with memory for the article recognition and the received article quantity. Since the quantity of the article in a container is determined with the help of a weighing machine which is separated from the storage places for the containers and which is associated with a writing and reading device for the data memory of the containers, the quantities of different articles can be determined through such a quantity detection device. The respectively required data are available via the respectively read-out article identifier for the article-related evaluation of the measured weight. The new data concerning the quantity of the respective type of article of the weighed container which are detected by way of the weighing machine can thus be read into the data memory again in order to allow the retrieval of such data in combination with the article identifier when necessary. This, on the other hand, allows a detection of the stock situation of all articles in the containers, which is only possible, however, on the basis of the measured values as determined during the weighing of the containers outside of their storage location, so that any changes in the quantity of the articles by a retrieval of articles from the containers deposited at the storage places cannot be detected. Apart from the fact that a store user is forced to remove the containers from the storage place in the case of adding or removing articles and to supply the same to the quantity detection device, there is an additional disadvantage as a result of the fact that the position of the containers cannot be queried. This not only leads to more difficulties in the use of the store, but also its management.
The invention is thus based on the object of providing the preconditions for a store of the kind mentioned above which allow an advantageous management of the store independent from the store user by way of the detected quantities on stock of the stored articles.
The invention achieves the object in such a way that in the known manner there is provided for each kind of article at least one container which can be received by the storage places, that each container bears a memory for a container identifier, that the container identifier of the containers received by the storage places can be read by way of a reader device connected to the transmission link and that the evaluator is in connection with a display device for containers with selected container identifier.
As a result of these measures the storage places can optionally receive containers for different kinds of articles without endangering the precise detection of quantity of the individual kinds of articles which is possible at any time. As a result of the reader device for the container identifier which is associated with each storage place and is connected to the transmission link, it is possible to specifically detect each container received by a storage place, which in the case of a known assignment of the individual containers to the individual kinds of articles allows a complete determination of the quantities on stock of all types of articles in the containers as received in the storage places, even though the storage places for the containers can be freely chosen. As a result, an essential requirement for the substantial adaptation of a store to the respective needs of the store user can be fulfilled if in addition the storage places of the individual containers can be queried. For this purpose the evaluator is connected with a display device for containers of selected container identifiers, so that the storage place of each container can be queried via said display device. The display device can be provided with a very different design because it is only necessary to provide a specific allocation between the containers and the storage places receiving them. An actually known embodiment consists of providing each storage place with a location identifier which in combination with the container identifier can be retrieved via the evaluating circuit in order to provide the storage location of every container in a suitable manner. Another possibility to detect the storage place of the individual containers is obtained for example through the use of coordinate transducers for the containers or storage places. The respective position coordinates can be determined by way of radio. The determination of the location coordinates of the store location, which in the case of predetermined position coordinates of the storage places are also available via a location identifier, leads to the advantage that these position coordinates can be used not only for displaying individual containers, but also for determining a specific sequence for adding or removing individual articles of spatially separated containers.
The coordinate detection of the storage places is not required in a mandatory manner, however. The display device for the containers with selected container identifiers can consist of a light source on the container per se which is activated via the evaluator when the respective container identifier is chosen. No position coordinates are required for this purpose. The storage location of the chosen container is still easily possible by way of the light display.
The storage of the containers in the individual storage places can naturally differ very strongly. Irrespective of the kind of container storage it is necessary to ensure that the containers can be received in a manner so as to be adequate for measurement in the storage places by the quantity detection devices. For this purpose the storage places can comprise a swiveling support for the containers, with the quantity detection devices consisting of swiveling supports for the weighing devices forming the containers. After inserting the containers in said swiveling supports the containers rest on the weighing devices in such a way that the weight of the articles in the individual containers can be determined via the weighing devices and the quantity on stock of said articles can be calculated from the same.
As has already been explained, an allocation of the individual containers to the kinds of articles as received by the same is a mandatory precondition for stock detection. In order to also enable that this precondition is fulfilled in cases when the allocation of the kinds of articles to the individual containers can be chosen at will, the evaluator can be connectable to at least one input device for article identifiers assignable to the individual containers. Particularly simple operating conditions are obtained in this connection when the input of the article identifier can be performed in the zone of the storage place receiving the respective container, which requires either portable input devices or input devices in the zone of the storage places. In order to enable providing information in the zone of the individual storage places on the respectively stored articles, the containers and/or the storage places for receiving the containers can be provided with a display which can be triggered by the input device for the article recognition and/or via the evaluator, thus simplifying the use of the store in particular.
To ensure that entries can be made easily in the zone of the storage places concerning the articles stored in a container, such entries must be made dependent on the detection of a properly stored container. For this purpose pilot switches for the containers can be assigned to the storage places, so that an effective entry of data is only enabled when a container with a respective container identifier is present and the container identifier was transmitted to the evaluator. The release of the data entry via the respective input device can be displayed additionally to the operator when the display device for containers of selected container identifiers can be triggered via the pilot switches for example. These pilot switches can naturally also be used to trigger the displays for article-related data, and the article identifier in particular, which are associated with the containers and/or the storage places. In order to avoid having to provide additional pilot switches the quantity detection devices consisting of the weighing devices can advantageously be used as pilot switches. In this case it is merely necessary to load the selected container by hand to such an extent that a predetermined measured value threshold of the weighing device is exceeded in order to transmit a signal to the evaluator.